>> glenn: truth and our tongues and peace in our hearts. from new york. from new york. good night, america. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> bret: democrats on the rebound. with less than two weeks until the election, several democrats close the gap. european protest intensify over government efforts to tackle entitlement. and we'll hear from general petraeus in afghanistan about peace talks with the taliban. live from our studio in washington, this is "special report." good evening, i'm bret baier. back to the fox big board to start off tonight taking a look at the balance of power. that is what it comes down to this election. which party will control both chambers of congress. in the senate, we told you that republicans need to pick up ten seats to take the majority. tonight, a look at how that could happen.

you're looking right now at all of the incumbents up this year. the democrats and the republicans. if republicans hold on to all of their seats which is possible they could do and then they ran the table with all of the possibilities that are within reach, that would be nevada, north dakota, indiana, pennsylvania, washington, wisconsin, west virginia. that would mean a net pick-up of 13 seats. that will likely not happen. according to the latest polls. if the election results mirrored the average of polls as they and right now, tonight democrats would hold on in california, connecticut, delaware and washington. that's a net pick-up of nine seats for republicans. short of the ten needed for the majority. but there are some developments over the last 24 to 72 hours. several independent polls, hence the aggregate of polls,

democrats seem to be closing in pennsylvania, colorado, in wisconsin, also over here in kentucky. the race in illinois is close within the margin of error. and nevada. also republican dino rossi is picking up steam in washington right now. he is closing the gap there. as of tonight, the seven races could decide which party controls the u.s. senate. tonight we'll focus on three of them. steve brown is in illinois. james rosen looks at the pennsylvania race. we begin with chief political correspondent carl cameron in denver. >> reporter: having led polls since august, colorado republican candidate ken buck faces a late surge to a toss-up by democratic incumbent senator bennett, who buck pounded for weeks as a lock step liberal. >> rubber stamp for harry reid and nancy pelosi's agenda. he supported the stimulus,

supported the healthcare bill, supported various pieces of legislation that the administration had high on their agenda. >> buck is a district attorney. this is arguably the closest senate race in the country. bennett never ran for office. he was appointed short-term when ken salazar became interior secretary. he ridiculed buck for flip-flopping. >> privatizing social security and getting rid of the department of education. like getting rid of the 17th amendment. getting rid of student loans. we shift back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. it's kind of a mess to be honest. >> i'm michael bennett -- >> he uses his own words against him in the attack ads. >> i'm pro-life. i'll answer the next question. i don't believe -- [inaudible ] >> ken buck, he's too extreme for colorado. >> gay rights groups are demanding an apology from buck for suggesting that homosexuality is a lifestyle

choice. victims advocates hammered him for what they call ince sensitive language about a rape case he handled 20 years ago. buck caps it off to a democratic smear tactic. >> i got endorsement from newspapers around the state. >> charges and attack ads on both sides have been misleading and unfair by independent watchdog groups. >> what is unfair to colorado is his record of overspending, overregulating and overtaxing. >> this swing state is so crucial, outside special interest spent more here than on any other race nationwide. colorado is a remarkable swing state. in 2002, the first mid-term of george w. bush's presidency, the governor was republican, both senators were republican, and five out of seven congressional districts. now in the first mid-term of the obama administration, it's the opposite. the governor is a democrat, and both u.s. senators and five out of seven congressional seats are held by democrats. the poll suggests the pendulum is about to swing the other way. bret?

>> bret: carl cameron in colorado tonight. now we go east from there to pennsylvania. that is a hot race where democratic congressman joe sestak and republican former congressman pat toomey will debate tonight in philadelphia. correspondent james rosen reports on what could be a changing race. >> boosted by visits from the same honchos who schemed to keep him on the sideline, he has closed the gap against toomey. survey of likely voters in pennsylvania earlier in week by the public policy polling finds sestak gained ten points in one month. by attracting all undecided independents in that time. the latest college morning calls the survey taken in the last week puts sestak up by three point. speaking to fox news in august, sestak retired navy admiral, predicted his surge.

>> interviewed by fox news in september, he forsaw the pivotal role that now shows the opponent capturing. >> i think independents swing it in the end. a lot comes down to how they view candidates in the final days. >> sestak took thousands from the same wall street banks he bailed out. too liberal without running. >> to shape the views, toomey, former president of the fiscally con everyone istive club for growth paints sestak as tax-and-spend liberal in lock step with the obama/reid/pelosi agenda. >> big businesses have given toomey is a blank check because he believes they shouldn't pay any taxes. none. >> let's not tax corporations. the solution is to eliminate corporate taxes altogether. >> the candidates debated three times in 13 months, including a duel on fox and friends. >> i got a feeling you won't

agree on this. >> while sestak skipped one previous debate, instead attending a fundraiser with john kerry, he and toomey are probably the only two combatant to have held and from the looks of things enjoyed their own beer summit. >> where toomey may find comfort is the at the top of his ticket, where corbett is running double digits ahead of dan ararado. both hail from western virginia, trending away from democrats. factor that may drive large number of republicans to the polls, bret, and to vote the g.o.p. slate. >> bret: don't know if there will be a beer summit tonight. thanks. another race we're following is for the president's old seat right here in illinois. one of president obama's old basketball buddies state treasurer alexi giannoulias trying to out-done mark kirk. steve brown has the story tonight. it shows that the contest has come down to a jump ball over scandals. >> fired up, ready to go.

>> not original. neither was much of the back and forth in tuesday night illinois u.s. senate debate between kirk and alexi giannoulias. giannoulias once again talking about kirk's embellished military record. >> the question, congressman, is why with this record would you not tell the truth. why would you make all this stuff up? >> kirk taking more swipes about the failed giannoulias family bank. >> betting hisback's future on the risky -- his bank's future on the risky real estate loan. loans to well-known convicted felons and mobsters. >> the latest poll suggests likely illinois voters are split 44-40, within the margin of error. and it remains a statistical tie. beyond the name-calling the race may boil down to chicago vast suburb. 6.5 million people, lots of independent voters and a place where the president approval numbers are sagging. it may explain what giannoulias this week offered rare public criticism of his friend, president obama saying it was a mistake spending so much time on healthcare rather

than job creation. >> unfortunately, it took some of the president's political capital. and some of the attention away from where it should have been. still proud they passed it. >> kirk has been pushing for weeks potential consequences of the illinois race where the voters will elect a senator for the next term and remainder of the current term. to be sworn in immediately after the election. >> we're the only state that specifically elects a senator to serve in the lame duck session of congress. with speaker pelosi and majority leader reid may want to raise taxes and accelerate spending. >> what made kirk smile these days is the fact that the republican party outperformed every other state g.o.p. in terms of voter contact. almost 3 million of them so far this campaign. a large percentage of them in the suburbs, heavily populated by independents. we are assured that giannoulias and his democratic allies are mining that same thick vain of independent

voters. >> bret: steve brown live in the windy city. looks windy there. looking at the u.s. house races now. one of the most powerful democrat in congress comes from massachusetts and he is in a tough fight. financial services committee chairman barney frank of massachusetts is lending $200,000 of his own money to his campaign. to hold off republican challenger sean bielat. frank says he is anticipating fighting the funding for bielat from the tea party express and other independent groups. one recent internal poll for the frank campaign had him ahead by 20 points. internal poll from bielat last month showed him only ten points down. back to the house races to watch now, another go back to races to watch. let's see if we can get it back here. we just requeue. we go to house races to watch. another race that we are following is in minnesota. that is a powerful democrat in

minnesota. jim ober-star. he is facing a tough test. local media reports say the 18-year congressman had an emotional debate with 24-year navy veteran chip cravaack. he said chip's supporters were earth people and said, "you just don't want to hear the truth." and a poll released by chip cravaack's campaign had him three points down. oberstar's group disputes that poll but clearly he has a fight on his hands. we will have much more from the big board and the races to watch in the coming 13 days. at the bottom of the hour, new development in a western governor's race. that brings us to tonight's poll question. text to vote, what is motivating you to vote november 2? text your answer to 36288. sr1 for u.s. house race. sr2 for u.s. senate race. sr3 for state or local race.

and sr4 for a referendum. we will bling you results later in the program. still ahead, a lot of folks in afghanistan are being trashed. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices?

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>> bret: international news. iran says it's doubled the stockpile of enriched uranium in june. he says his country now has 66 pounds of uranium enriched to 20%, that is enough to produce fuel for research reactor. but far below the 90% enrichment. ballot officials thrown out one-fourth of the ballot from last month's parliamentary elections because of fraud. the u.s. and the afghan government continues to bring

taliban in the tent for peace negotiations. national security correspondent jennifer griffin on how serious the effort is. >> reporter: it's been a steady drum beat for president karzai's office designed as much to rattle neighboring pakistan as it is to end the war with the taliban. the "new york times" quoting unnamed afghan officials saying four top taliban leaders have engaged in karzai government in reconciliation talks. adding that nato flew some of the taliban leaders to cable, something the u.s. military denies. general david petraeus confirmed nato provided security for the talks. throwing his support behind the effort in a sit-down interview with fox's geraldo rivera. >> in virtually, all counterinsurgency campaigns, there is some component of reconciliation. >> how serious are the negotiations? should we believe they would end the war or simply prolong it? >> i don't think any negotiated settlement at this time is possible.

taliban would want far too much. >> jack keen is a petraeus confidant who provided a back channel from the surge in iraq. >> afghans in their history never lost a war. the afghans simply switch to the winning side. momentum means everything. if the afghan's believe that we are about to strike a deal with the taliban, we're going to see many more afghans decide that perhaps they want to be affiliated with the taliban themselves. >> best-selling pakistani author rasheed says the talks are aimed at war skeptics in the white house and europe and likely to anger the pakistan intelligence service which isn't party to the talks. >> a counsel of wills going on here between the americans and the pakistani military. >> reporter: the pakistanis were so angry about the back channel talks they arrested the number two leader of the taliban, and ally of theirs

when he was in karachi recently. it was designed to send a signal to other leaders not to cut back channel deals with president karzai. >> bret: jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. thank you. fox news learned that this man, american cleric anwar al-awlaki was at the pentagon shortly after the 9/11 attacks. for lunch. al-awlaki is said to be the first american to earn a spot on the c.i.a. kill or capture list. we'll get more on the story from the national correspondent catherine herridge on the online show tonight. you can be part of the "special report" online at the home page, foxnews.com/specialreport. begins at 7:00 eastern. the obama administration has asked a federal appeals court to immediately suspend a judge's ruling overturning the pentagon "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which is law. the government says ending the ban on gays openly serving in the military at this time would pose a major problem. meanwhile, at least three service members discharged for being gay has begun the process to reinlist.

we'll have a live report from oregon where the president is doing campaigning tonight. that's a bit later. next up, britain cuts deep in the budget while the french fight their government's austerity plan. with all the equipment you use to stay fit, you might want to try lifting one of these. in recent years we've added a unique natural sea salt to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. it helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor.

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>> bret: stocks rebounded today. the dow gained 129-1/3. the nasdaq was up 20-1/2. the u.s. is said to be keeping pressure on china to allow the currency to rise against the dollar. senior treasury department official says the issue would be discussed by g-20 economic ministers this weekend. the u.s. wants chinese currency to appreciate to make american products more competitive. while china's economy is booming, europe is still trying to dig out of a

terrible downturn. correspondent greg palkot looks at how those efforts are being received in two different countries. >> there was another day of violence in france. protesters rioting in the street. union members blocking airports. police move in to unblock oil depots. all this turmoil in response to effort to hike minimum retirement age to 62. key to president sarkozy's austerity plan. he says he won't budge. across the channel in the u.k., spirited but dignified debate as they unveiled budget cut by the coalition right government. >> this is their biggest attempt at cuts since the 1920s. >> cuts to be phased in, in the next four years, aim dealing with the booming deficit amount to $130 billion in government spending. 490,000 jobs. from bobby to war and royal

family. nothing is spared. british conservatives blame past center left labor governments for digging them in a deficit hole. for their part, opposition leaders say the cuts are too fast. >> today's reckless scandal with people's livelihood runs the risk of stifling the fragile recovery. >> while the u.k. is smaller than the u.s., the budget deficit is relatively larger. at around 11% of gross domestic product. the approach to the economy are different, too. the brits are foregoing stimulus to concentrate on debt and keeping interest rates down. >> the more you cut, the deficit, the more confidence in the economy. >> prepared to the violent -- compared to the violent reaction of the french, the violence here has been muted so far. critics say when the cuts begin to bite, that's when british cool could heat up. in london, greg palkot, fox

news. >> back here in the u.s., one thing the prompted our economic downturn was the housing market crash. now there is some relief. it's in danger -- it's for people in danger of losing their homes. correspondent claudia cowen reports not everyone thinks it's a fair deal for those who play by the rules. >> thousands of struggling homeowners waiting in line overnight in hopes to hold on to the american dream. >> if i did notification today, give me security knowing that me, my husband and five kids have a home. >> after meeting with lenders, scores of people lower the mortgage payment and give funding to napca. >> people can come here in the same day and restructure mortgages and saving $500 to $1,000 a month. >> my monthly payment were $1888 per month and down now to, i have to keep looking at it because i can't believe it.

$687.64. 2% interest. >> another home owner with the same mortgage paying his bill would shell out the $1888 a month leaving some to question rather such foreclosure rescues are fair or wise. >> it's the old adage of t taxing success and subsidizing losses. >> well intentioned, such programs could have unintended consequences. >> it creates a morale hazard. in this case, those playing by the rules are suffering in an in a sense. >> good to see everybody. do not be concerned. >> naca ceo says assistant struggling neighbors benefits everyone. >> no one wants a vacant house next to them. everybody knows somebody who lost their home or are on the verge of losing that. >> some say it delays the

inevitable from many borrowers as well as a real correction in the market, organizers say as long as people are at risk for losing their homes they will work to make sure it doesn't happen. in sacramento, claudia cowen, fox news. >> bret: after the break, wendell goler has a live report from portland, oregon, on the president's west coast campaign trip. don't forget about the text to vote poll. what motivates you most to vote november 2? text to 36288. sr1 for the u.s. house rate. sr2 for senate race. sr3 for state or local races. sr4 for a referendum. we have results later. the grapevine is next. ÷çp/óm7;oúxpwró çzx

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>> bret: now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. president obama has left out the word "creator" while quoting the declaration of independence. again. he referenced the document to a democratic party gathering monday saying, "each of us are endowed with certain alien i believe rights." the declaration of independence language is "they are endowed by their creator." he made the same error on september 15. speaking to the congressial hispanic caucus institute. when asked why he omitted "creator" twice, robert gibbs said he hasn't seen the quote but i sure you the president believes in the declaration of

independence. new study by the energy department found problems in the stimulus funded weatherization work in the president home state of illinois. the inspector general found problems so severe that homes were not energy efficient and were more dangerous for people to live in. the testing revealed substandard performance in the weatherization, initial assessment and contractor billing. it's so significant it puts program at risk. finally, after getting an award from president of russia, there is now an aphone app. the company that produced the app said it chose chapman

because she's a trendy, modern girl. anyone who beats her can become her friend on facebook and win access to exclusive collection of her pictures and firsthand details of her secret and social life. back to politics and the president is on to his way to oregon right now to speak at rally for the democratic candidate for governor there. wendell goler is already there. good evening, wendell. >> good evening, bret. the president book ended this with limiting losses for governors races in oregon and a final stop in minnesota. michigan, indiana, ohio, illinois, wisconsin, iowa, new mexico and maine. all states the president won in 2008. the democratic governors are in danger of being replaced by

republican. oregon's governor who served until 2003 wants his old job back. >> i am the only candidate in the race that created private sector jobs and brought jobs to state of oregon and negotiate businesses with companies. >> chris dudley a former nbc star for the portland trailblazers trying to be the first candidate in 72 years to win the governorship here without holding public office first. he raised nearly twice as much money as his opponent including three-quarters of a million from the republican governors association. he says kistopper had his chance. >> after 14 careers, eight as governor, you walked out saying that the state is ungovernable. i can't lead it. we can't go back to that. >> president obama said the next two years will be focussed on implementing healthcare reform.

regulatory reform. a new crop of republican governors could complicate that. republican governors are also going to sign off on republican friendly redistricting plan on the 2010 census. all things being equal, more gain for house in 2012 and the president won't find it as comfortable campaigning for re-election in state with republican governors. >> bret: wendell goler live in portland. thank you. which house races are going down to the wire? which ones will have the biggest national impact? we get predictions from the fox all-stars when we return. yellowbook has always been crucial to your business,

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it's going to put a large -- and it will be a large killer. >> we have the best healthcare in the world and we're going to make it better with this system. it's not going to cost you more. it's not going to cost you more money. [ booing ] that's phony argument put out by the heritage foundation and they're dead wrong. i read the bill! >> bret: 18-term congressman jim oberstar. you saw that debate this week. it's heated. according to local polls this could be a tight race for the long-time committee chairman in minnesota. as you look at what republicans need to do to balance of power, we showed you there on the big board a couple of times, you can pick up 39 seats to win the majority. there you see the breakdown. so what about the house races? folks are watching? panel, stephen hayes for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard from "the hill.

sindcated columnist charles krauthammer. let's start with the minnesota race. heated. steve? >> the first thing to say is if this district is close, it tells you something about the size and the wave we might be seeing on november 2. you saw in the debate something interesting. i think jim oberstar is feeling the heat and he understands that the race tightened quite a bit. if you talk to people on both sides and political parties, they will tell you the race tightened a bit. the general expectations is they come home for jim oberstar, and it leans democratic. but chip cravaak makes good argument. one way he negotiates coming home is appealing to unions. he says i was a northwest pilot and served in a union and proud to be part of a union and is trying to chip away as what most believe to l be turn to oberstar. >> bret: are there canaries in the coal mine on election

night that we could see how the race is going depending on the races that shouldn't be close? >> oberstar won with 68, 63% in the last cycles. obama won with 63% of the vote. john kerry and al gore won this district. this is not a democrat who is supposed to be worried at this point. this is a sign of the kind of massacre that could be on its way. again, the polls -- the votes have not been counted, but if democrats are apathetic and the angry voters, that debate that we just saw got a huge crowd. huge turn out. >> bret: town hall. >> it was packed in the room. it started to sound like a town hall. i think that jim oberstar could be in real trouble. if he is, almost everybody is. >> bret: speaking of everybody, financial services chairman barney frank in massachusetts, he is facing a race. he just loaned his campaign

$200,000. up next republican sean bielak. we'll play the video. we won't have to play the sound. of barney frank's partner heckling bialat after the last debate. what about this race, charles? >> if oberstar is the canary of the coal mine, then frank is the parakeet of the coal mine. >> bret: this is the video of the heckling. >> this shouldn't be a close race. in frank district it shouldn't be competitive. he ran unopposed in 2006. he is in a district that went 2-1 in every presidential cycle. the gore, the kerry, and the obama cycle. however, the first warning sign occurred in january when scott brown ran, and he carried this liberal district. now the problem from that frank is facing he has an opponent, 35, former marine, a former businessman. and the fact that as you

mentioned that he is lending his campaign $200,000 if you check the finance reports that frank has done in congress is about 20% of his net worth. that means he is worried about something. the internal poll on the democratic side, show him with a 20-point lead. there are recent internal polls on the bialat side that show ten points or less. charlie cook had this as a solid democrat. now it's leaning democrat. the one thing about this race, which i think in the end frank will pull out, is that there is a moral victory somewhere. in that frank is not a guy who would admit error. he doesn't only think he is the smartest guy in the room, he thinks he's the smartest guy in the continental united states. he admitted that he made a

mistake when he said in the early years of the decade it was not in the situation of a crisis. that in and of itself is a moral victory. >> bret: that is a district that scott brown, republican won in his race for the senate. a.b., turn to michigan 15. again, another big-time democrat. of course, john dingal facing rob steel, a republican. >> john dingal is the longest serving member of the house of representatives, he is in a seat only he and his father have held since 1933. he is another person that won 71, 8 8 and 71 in the last cycle. staggering political safety and security. he raised half of what he raised in the 2008 cycle. talk about taking one for the team. this is a guy that has gone against the leadership when he had to, to protect the auto

industry in detroit. he voted for cap and trade. he is being hit up by rob steels, cardiologist on healthcare. the cardiologist is the outsider. longevity is not in fashion and he is the long-time incumbent. >> bret: we're picking top democrats. another one in south carolina. the fifth district, the budget chairman. john spratt against mick mulvaney, the republican. steve, this looks close. >> it does. if there was a race that epitomize what is we've seen in the 2010, this might be john spratt. well-liked, mod raid chairman of the budget committee. served as a moderate for most of his career. separate is someone who voted for healthcare and stimulus and is defending those on the campaign trail. they are not popular in his district. it's a district that leans republican, probably plus eight. plus ten.

and mulvaney is a candidate who was recruited in 2006 by jim demint who played a huge role energizing conservative and tea party candidates this time around. he is a mentor to mulvaney and pushed him and helped him in every conceivable way. this race, prognosticators have it at a dead heat. it shows that mulvaney is pulling away. this is one of the races that the republicans will be the majority have to win. >> bret: 13 days to go. a lot can change. some of the senate races are closing and that could effect the other races on the ballot. down the road here, predictions on numbers. larry sabato at 47. rasmussen at 45. "wall street journal," 53. republican pick-up, where are we? >> 545. >> mid-40s. >> 50. >> bret: there you go. up next, austerity protest in

europe. could the same thing happen here? great indoors ♪ ♪ friskies indoor delights. ♪ feed the senses. with all the equipment you use to stay fit, you might want to try lifting one of these. in recent years we've added a unique natural sea salt to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. it helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so if you're ready to eat a little better, grab your spoon and do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™

we're almost doing this because we want to. there is no ideological zion in doing this. we're doing this because we have to. >> the guy has not been there five minutes and all of a sudden they put the world right. >> bret: great britain announcing the biggest budget cut since the 1920s. now you're looking at france, another day of violence in france. protesters in the street, union members blocking airports. all of this in eresponse to president sarkozy's effort to hike the minimum retirement age to 62. >> we want to stop work at 60 because it's something our parents, our grandparents and even our great grandparents fought for. over the years, even before

sarkozy, you can see we're losing everything they fought for. that's unacceptable. >> great britain, france, austerity. could it happen here? we're back with the panel. charles? >> is that what the second world war was about? i thought it was about something else. this is a perfect example of what happens when you get the bloated, social democratic state that you had. two effects. the first is economic. it's unsustainable as we see around europe. you get the result we saw in england where the government has to have absolutely radical cuts. the largest cuts in government handout essentially in 70 years. very, very major. nothing is spared, including the military. but at least it's a realistic approach. if you look at what happens in france, you see the second effect. of generation after generation of a nanny state which provides all of one's needs. it's essentially a spiritual collapse.

government, a country in which you have millions in the streets rioting. tax on police. shutting of the refineries. over the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62. is the country you only describe as decadent, after all the years of being impamized it doesn't have the spirit to rise and say there are things that we have to do. and that i think are the two effects that people living here see abroad. in the end, the social democratic state is unsustainable because the public sector, parasitic is too large and the private sector is unable to sustain it. secondly, it changes the spirit of the people in a way in the end can be irreversible. >> bret: they have talking about 60 to 62 for retirement age. in the u.s., if we talked about 65 to 67, would there be equal backlash from unions and other folks across the

country? >> that's -- fuel shortages, planes can't take off from the airport, and -- i mean, i don't think we know what we're in for. i mean these are very sober warnings about what the reaction would be here. we were now awaiting a power shift in our own austerity plan on its way. we know that the narratives, the political narrative of 2010 was all about cutting government spending and reducing the deficit. once we're on a path for cutting military spending and forming social security in our pension, i have no idea in 18 months how americans would react. we saw tea party, town hall, angry over the healthcare bill. they want government out of the medicare but they want it preserved. we just don't know how used to the government people have grown in this country. we can imagine and talk about it here, but we don't knowle in cuts come -- know until the cuts come. it will produce hardship and there will be backlash. i don't know if there will be

riot and fuel shortages but i'm sure there will be a response. >> bret: steve? >> i haven't been this optimistic about politics in years. to see what david cameron did, a moderate running a coalition government is doing with these kind of across the board cuts. i'll differ with charles in one respect. not that nothing is spared. the only thing spared is the healthcare system. a problem unto itself. he's making cuts, they were supposed to be 25%. it looks like they will be 19%. these are serious cuts, though. this isn't actually just slowing the growth. these are real cuts that will have a real impact. in a sense, we are looking at what we could be seeing. the choices we could be seeing our government have to make years from now. we'll make a choice as a country. we can do this voluntarily through the ballot box and do it in a relatively less painful way, or we can do it, forced on us when we are on the brink of insolvency. this is encouraging to see there are politician overseas, some of them here, too.

chris christie doing things here to give me some optimism. >> bret: with the president umbrella cover of the deficit debt commission that will come out december 1. despite that, will he have fortitude to do major cuts on his own? depending on what happens in mid-term? >> he won't. although, there is one area. social security i think you can get national consensus including a gradual raising and indexing of the retirement age. it's doable in america. one area you might have a consensus on entitlement reform. not going to happen on healthcare. but could happen on that. >> bret: that's it for the panel. stay tuned for an entrepreneur trying to take advantage of a growing problem.

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text to vote poll. 20% voted for u.s. house race. 23% for u.s. senate race. 9% for state and local races. 48% for referendums. thanks for your votes tonight. finally tonight, in america, when there is a problem, usually it doesn't take long for some businessman or woman to come up with an idea to fix it and make some money at the same time. so, when an infestation of bed bugs hit office buildings and apartments. local vendors went to work. this is a real story from the new york local news. >> one upper east side woman and their husband say they have a new weapon. >> defender is basically a product that will help protect you and we do not guarantee that you are not going to get a bed bug but it will greatly reduce the risk. there you are. protected. >> bret: otherwise known as a garbage bag. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's i